This paper contains a summary of a larger study (Gawryszewski 1989). The study consists of three parts: the first, most extensive part is devoted to permanent migration; the second part — to commuting to work; and the third part — to other forms of spatial population mobility, i.e. the students' migration and commuting to school, tourist/recreational migration, and pilgrimages to sanctuaries.

The main aims of the study are:

to describe spatial patterns of different types of migration vis-a-vis national socio--economic change on the basis of the available unified statistical material, using a possibly long time-horizon;

to identify changes in the intensity and range (distance) of those movements;

to propose a hierarchical regionalization of permanent migration based on inter--voivodship flows, using the Slater method, as well as to identify the stage by the process of modernization of spatial mobility which has been reached in Poland.

The following report is based on three analytical studies: a monograph by A. Gawryszew-ski on spatial population mobility in Poland in 1952-1985, and two papers of my own on inter-regional migrations in 1975/76 and in 1985. All these studies are based on the available official statistics — the latter two on matrices of inter-regional permanent migration between 49 voivodships. The matrix for 1985 was additionally disaggregated into four basic directional categories: rural to rural, rural to urban, urban to rural, and urban to urban.The data available on permanent migration are rather reliable, with only rare, temporary and regional deformations. The emerging pattern is clear and consistent. The data on other types of migrational movements are uneven and in some cases, such as recreational mobility, partial, scanty and even incidental. The present report is, therefore, limited to comments on permanent migration, involving a change in domicile only.

The basic framework of demographic processes is the age-sex population structure, shaped by births, deaths and migration flows. From another prospective, a given age structure determines to a certain degree, the intensity of natural population change, as well as migration flows. Hence, the main problem of demography includes the analysis of the interdependences between the age-sex structure and the basic components of population change. This problem, with reference made to the present and future population growth in the Warsaw region, is taken up in this paper.

This paper contains a short demographic characteristic as well as projection of the population number and structure in the Katowice region*. Apart from this, the question of the consistency of the assumptions made in the projection model with the reality are taken into account. On this basis, an assessment is made concerning the possibility of treating the projection results as a demographic forecast. The analysis is based on 1983 and 1984 data.